{"id":803,"date":"2024-01-13T06:53:23","date_gmt":"2024-01-13T06:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/?page_id=803"},"modified":"2024-01-17T06:37:50","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T06:37:50","slug":"politics_detail_4","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/?page_id=803","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS_DETAIL_4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\">POLITICS<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\"><strong>JANUARY 8, 2024<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">In Brazil, Another Way to Remember an Attempted Coup<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>A year after a mob stormed Brazil\u2019s capital, January 8 is now a date to commemorate democracy\u2019s survival.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:15% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\" src=\"http:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/DiasIsabela_900px_2023.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-783 size-full\"\/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<ul>\n<li>ISABELA DIAS<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reporter<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"990\" height=\"580\" src=\"http:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/GettyImages-12460966111.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-471\" style=\"width:890px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/GettyImages-12460966111.webp 990w, https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/GettyImages-12460966111-300x176.webp 300w, https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/GettyImages-12460966111-768x450.webp 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 990px) 100vw, 990px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Supporters of Brazilian former President Jair Bolsonaro invade Planalto Presidential Palace while clashing with security forces in Brasilia on January 8, 2023.<strong>Sergio Lima\/Getty<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>On January 8, 2023,<\/strong>\u00a0a week after Brazil\u2019s former president (turned president again) Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva took office following the closest presidential election since the end of the country\u2019s over 20-year military dictatorship\u2014begun in 1964 by a coup partially\u00a0supported\u00a0by the United States\u2014a mob of supporters of defeated far-right President Jair Bolsonaro\u00a0stormed, and vandalized, the center of the nation\u2019s main constitutional powers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time, Bolsonaro was in\u00a0Orlando, Florida. He was not present as those loyal to his cause descended upon the capital\u2019s Three Powers square ready to ransack the buildings of Congress, presidential offices, and the Supreme Court in an open assault on Brazil\u2019s 40-year-old democracy. Dressed in the yellow, green, and blue shades of the national flag\u2014an embattled symbol that had, over the previous four years, come to signify regression for some and pride for others\u2014the insurrectionists shouted \u201cGod, nation, family and, freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some called for military intervention. They hoped members of the armed forces aligned with Bolsonaro, an avowed apologist for the dictatorship, would \u201crestore the order.\u201d If not, rioters were ready to take the matter into their own hands. Here they were to do just that. And not unlike their American counterparts, those who invaded and defaced the public buildings proudly filmed themselves as they attempted a coup against their government, producing indelible evidence of the many crimes committed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, on the first anniversary of January 8, Brazil is attempting to remember. At the time, there were many comparisons to America\u2019s attempted coup.\u00a0 \u201cBrazil Just Had Its January 6,\u201d read the\u00a0headline\u00a0of a piece I wrote\u00a0then. They\u00a0were inevitable. As media reports would\u00a0later\u00a0show, Brazilian and US authorities shared concerns\u2014and intelligence\u2014that a copycat antidemocratic act had been in the making.\u00a0But the aftermath has been radically different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One year on, Brazil is remembering its coup as a moment to celebrate its democracy, and what was saved when protesters failed on January 8, instead of as a warning that could it once more happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, Bras\u00edlia will host an official event initially titled \u201cDemocracy Restored,\u201d but since changed to \u201cUnshaken Democracy\u201d (the title of a book and a 57-minute\u00a0documentary\u00a0released by the Supreme Court about January 8). Lula summoned his ministers to attend and president of the Superior Electoral Court Alexandre de Moraes and others are expected to give speeches. There will be a symbolic ceremony to restitute some of the since-restored invaluable works of art and historical documents damaged by the insurrectionists to their rightful places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Much of this is possible because Bolsonaro, for all the comparison, has not been Trump. He has largely\u00a0stayed out of the spotlight and has not been as dogged in defense of election lies. As Brazilian Defense Minister Jos\u00e9 M\u00facio Monteiro put it recently in an\u00a0interview, the will for a coup was there, but there was no leader. \u201cThe institutions didn\u2019t want the coup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also is a product of compromise. In the immediate wake of the failed coup attempt, disparate political leaderships came together in forceful condemnation of the attacks and in the days after, a show of unity was embodied in the image of Lula walking hand in hand with state governors as they moved down the ramp of the damaged Planalto presidential offices. \u201cWe won\u2019t allow democracy to slip out of our hands,\u201d Lula said then. Perhaps because of the nation\u2019s still recent history of a military coup, there was little room for hesitation in understanding and calling what had happened as a failed attempt to throw away the Constitution. Across the country, Brazilians took to the streets in pro-democracy protests calling for the rioters and their instigators to be held accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, as with the American experience, the full picture of the violence, destruction, and insurgent intent\u2014and of a close call it was\u2014would not be fully known without further investigation and an ongoing public reckoning. In October 2023, a 1,300-page congressional report released to the public\u00a0pointed\u00a0to Bolsonaro as the \u201cintellectual author\u201d of the attacks and called for his indictment\u2014as well as that of 60 others\u2014for crimes including criminal association, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, and coup d\u2019\u00e9tat. \u201cBrazilian democracy was attacked and masses were manipulated by hate speech,\u201d the final\u00a0report\u00a0states, adding that \u201cJanuary 8 is the work of Bolsonarismo.\u201d Included in the evidence was the testimony of a former ally of Bolsonaro\u00a0to\u00a0investigators about a supposed coup plot to subvert the election results that the president would have been made privy to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than\u00a02,000\u00a0people were arrested for their involvement in the attacks, 30 have been since convicted, and some sentenced to as many as 17 years in prison. In a recent\u00a0interview\u00a0with the\u00a0<em>O Glogo\u00a0<\/em>newspaper, Supreme Court justice and president of the Superior Electoral Court Alexandre de Moraes, who is the rapporteur of the criminal inquiry into the actions of January 8, said there was a plan in place to publicly hang him on the plaza in Bras\u00edlia. Moraes and the Supreme Court, two of Bolsonaro\u2019s supporter\u2019s biggest foes, played a critical\u2014albeit\u00a0controversial\u2014role in shielding the cogs of the institutional machine and ultimately helping guarantee the transfer of power.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It may be too soon to tell whether the coup\u2019s memory will come back to haunt Brazil, or if the Brazilian far-right\u2019s anti-democratic delusions have been put to rest for good. It is often said, somewhat jokingly, that Brazilians suffer from short memory and, with time, tend to overlook even the worst kinds of transgressions or offenses committed against them\u2014including by their leaders. But one year after a dreadful episode in the country\u2019s history, there\u2019s a movement to memorialize what a now-retired Supreme Court justice\u00a0dubbed\u00a0the \u201cday of infamy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Brazil, Another Way to Remember an Attempted Coup On January 8, 2023,\u00a0a week after Brazil\u2019s former president (turned president again) Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva took office following the closest presidential election since the end of the country\u2019s over 20-year military dictatorship\u2014begun in 1964 by a coup partially\u00a0supported\u00a0by the United States\u2014a mob of supporters&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/?page_id=803\" class=\"\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">POLITICS_DETAIL_4<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":436,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"on","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":"","footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=803"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":811,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/803\/revisions\/811"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}